The Candy Snatchers – Human Zoo – Interview

The Candy Snatchers

Human Zoo! (Go-Kart)
An interview with Matthew Odietus & producer Dean Rispler
by Jon Sarre

So who’s the most dangerous band in show biz?? C’mon, you know you’ve been losing sleep over this question. Well, inquiring mind, the Candy Snatchers‘ll doubtlessly give any fearsome foursome, quarrelsome quartet or terrifying trio a run for their chain wallets (and maybe get you into a bar brawl with the lardass propped up at the next stool). These lads are ba-a-a-ad, Jackson, they bleed pure rock’n’retch (all over your new creepers, too). They punk it out whilst the others just punk out; they, they, they’re, uh, hard to get a hold of cuz they got day jobs, too, but fortunately, persistence paid off and I was able to get in some word count with a fresh-outta work (maybe disgruntled) real-life Candy Snatcher.

You guys are in Virginia, right? Richmond?
Matthew: Norfolk

Did you grow up in Virginia?
Matthew: Uh, yeah.

Isn’t Larry from Ohio?
Matthew: He lived in Ohio for short while, but he’s basically from Virginia. Everybody’s pretty much from Virginia.

So how long have you guys been doing this thing?
Matthew: It’s gotta be goin’ on seven years now. It’s kinda hard to count, I think it’s seven, I dunno.

Dean: Too long, should’ve learned by now.

Every time you guys put something out it seems to get better, presswise…
Matthew: But we’re still broke.

Get used to it.
Matthew: I’m used to it. That’s why I work as a cook in a Mexican restaurant.

So the record, Human Zoo, is out, right?
Matthew: I dunno, you should ask Dean that.

Dean: What’s that?

Is the record out?
Dean: Yeah.

Yeah?
Dean: Yeah.

Matthew: So I guess the answer is “yes” then. Go-Kart does a real poor job of letting us know…

Sometimes a record comes out and you don’t see it [in the stores] for a while. It depends on who’s doing the ordering.
Matthew: Some people have a really good sense of what will sell, so they don’t order our records…

When are you guys heading out [on tour]?
Matthew: I’m not sure… we’re gonna kick it off in San Diego…

Are you guys out a lot?
Matthew: Yeah.

How much do you guys go out?
Matthew: It depends… this [undisclosed time] is the longest we’ve been home…

Have you guys done Europe yet?
Matthew: No.

Do you have any plans to?
Matthew: Ah… no. I mean, we’d love to… but Go-Kart won’t let us license the record.

Dean: That’s not true…

It just seems… most bands I talk to have a better time in Europe.
Matthew: That’s what I hear too, but we’re not allowed to put anything out there.

Dean: That’s not true either… we haven’t gotten a good enough offer.

Bands seem to get treated right over there.
Matthew: I’d sure like to see what that’s all about, but that’s okay, cuz we’ll just sit in Virginia with our shitty jobs.

Dean: Hey, can’t be as bad as my job!

Matthew: Hey, I don’t know about that!

Or mine.

[a discussion on “who makes the least at our respective jobs” ensues]

Matthew [on Dean]: He doesn’t blow his money on drugs or alcohol.

Dean: On alcohol, but I blow it a lot on girls… still I don’t know where the money goes.

It’s the exciting world of entertainment – here’s where the glamour starts, sometimes it ends here, too. So how far have the Candy Snatchers gotten on the glamour trail? What’s the most exciting, glamorous thing that’s made you glad you’re in the rock’n’roll business?
Matthew: Uh…

Besides making a record with Dean…
Dean: Two records.

Besides two records with Dean…
Matthew: I dunno, probably waking up in the back of the van, sweating, waking up at seven a.m., sweating and driving ten hours with a hangover to the next show where ya make 75 bucks.

Dean: Sometimes you get free cocaine.

Matthew: Yeah, sometimes, but not enough.

Not enough to make it worthwhile.
Dean: Free cocaine and free beer.

Two drink tickets and a guest, if ya know anyone in town.
Dean: Just to interject… you guys did tour with Nashville Pussy.

Matthew: Yeah.

Dean: And they did give you their old, broken down van. That’s pretty cool, pretty glamorous.

Matthew: Yeah, I guess. That was pretty nice. They were seeing the glamour and they took pity.

They are seeing the glamour.
Matthew: Yeah, they got a show canceled in Denver cuz of the [Littleton, CO] school shooting.

Really?
Matthew: Yeah, they were opening up for Marilyn Manson.

What’s your take on that?
Matthew: Nashville Pussy opening up for Marilyn Manson?

On the school shootings… on Marilyn Manson, school shootings and wearing black trench coats no matter what the heat’s like outside, it’s probably not a good idea in Norfolk.
Matthew: In Norfolk? No.

You’d be pretty hot.
Matthew: You’d be sweating your balls off… I dunno, you just gotta figure stuff like that is gonna happen…

The weird thing is, everything I read is… it’s basically the usual suburban teen urges… nothing seems too weird, like it’s not Manson style…
Matthew: I’m just glad stuff like that happens cuz it makes for different TV, it beats re-runs of Gilligan’s Island… You get to watch live footage of kids bein’ wheeled out of high school all bloody.

How do you think the publicity’s gonna affect Marilyn Manson? Is it gonna help him out at all? What if they found a buncha Candy Snatchers CDs and seven inches on those kids?
Matthew: I don’t know, I don’t really like kids. We play in bars, we don’t play for a buncha kids. I don’t care.

But ya gotta like the kids, that’s where it’s at!
Matthew: I don’t really like people.

Ever think you should just stop and go with the flow?
Matthew: Go with the flow, like do something people will like?

Something people will enjoy for a change… I don’t wanna say that, cuz I wish there were more bands like…
Matthew: Plus I don’t wanna hang out with people who wanna play garbage, cuz that’d be worse than hangin’ out with the goddamn kitchen staff where I work.

What do you guys have on when you’re workin’? What do you listen to?
Matthew: Um.. blenders…

They don’t let you play music in the kitchen?
Matthew: There’s this hippie guy who brings in tapes and I usually make him turn ’em off so I can hear nothin’. I don’t really like music that much.

Dean: Matthew only listens to Krautrock, like Can and Amon Düül… Hawkwind.

Not Rammstein, right?
Matthew: No, not Rammstein. I guess those guys are gettin’ some heat for those killings.

That’s KMFDM.
Matthew: They were showing some Rammstein, too.

They were? Simple solution: ban guns, Marilyn Manson, and Rammstein.
Matthew: I’ve been listening to a lot of bagpipe music. I’ve been finding these albums at thrift stores, but I don’t really know anything about it.

Does it influence your guitar playing at all?
Matthew: No.

Dean: Yeah it does. There’s a song on the last record, what is it… “30 Grams to Life.” That song has the bagpipe thing goin’ on. It sounds like Celtic music.

Matthew: Which actually, I’ve been gettin’ into the Fairport Convention…

Gettin’ into the limey folk scene…
Dean: I have all those records!

Matthew: You do?

Dean: Yeah, it’s got that guy who went to Jethro Tull…

Someone else was in the Fairport Convention, who…
Dean: Richard Thompson…

[the conversation spins off into anecdotes about listening to MotorBooty multiple times during one sitting, record store clerks with “dead fish handshakes,” the popularity of death metal and tribute bands]

Tribute bands – that’s what the people want, so it’s good we’re keepin’ it current.
Matthew: People don’t like music.

I think people need more of a chance to hear it… They’re not properly informed.
Dean: I haven’t read one bad review of this record.

Matthew: Those are the only people who buy the records, people who write for magazines.

We get ’em for free, but what are ya gonna do?
Matthew: This.

Dean: It’s the only thing you can do.
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